You're A Bad Wolf Rose Tyler
by Zarius
Summary: In this rewrite of a key moment from "Journey's End", Rose puts the men she loves on the spot and on the basis of a whisper, makes a swift choice, but she is soon met with the fury of an altogether different storm: Hurricane Donna.


**DOCTOR WHO:**

 **YOU'RE A BAD WOLF ROSE TYLER**

 **(A rewrite of a key scene in "Journey's End")**

 **WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

* * *

 _Darlig Ulv Stranden._

Better known as Bad Wolf Bay.

Here, all things bound together will unravel.

Rose Tyler stood between two versions of the man she loved, both looking exactly the same, wearing different outfits.

One looked just as he did on the beach the last time they saw each other, the worst day of Rose's life, when she was torn from her home reality and was reduced to a quivering wreck on the icy cold shoreline watching her loved one visibly slip away into the either of eternity.

This man was The Doctor

The other man beside her was dressed a little more casually, but was also seemingly The Doctor, he appeared full of spark and energy, but behind his handsome features and devilishly sharp eyes was a wound that had not healed. Rose could sense there were mental scars that lingered from a time forged in nothing but all consuming fire.

It was most familiar to her.

"That's me, when we first met" The Doctor said, addressing his double

"And I made him better" Rose said, so perfectly in sync with what the man she loved was thinking,

"Now you can do the same for him" he said.

"But-but he's not you, is he?" said Rose

"He needs Rose Tyler, that's very me" The Doctor replied.

"It's better than that" said Donna, the latest model who accompanied The Doctor on his travels, and a key component in the creation of the other, battle weary and scarred Doctor. A human/time lord Metacrisis event where strands of both species merged together, creating something altogether new.

And, possibly, something altogether more _frightening_.

"Don't you see what he's trying to give you? Tell her. Go on" she said, urging the Metacrisis double of the Doctor to press the point forward.

"I look like him and I think like him. Same memories, same thoughts, same everything. Except I've only got one heart" he said.

"Which means?" Rose asked.

"He's part human" said Donna.

"He can grow old and never regenerate" the original Doctor added.

"I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you, if you want" he said

Rose felt her heart flutter, an opportunity had arisen, the rest of her life had been potentially laid out for her.

"You'll grow old at the same time as me?" she asked again, wanting him to make it quite clear to her.

"Together" he said.

The TARDIS' time rotor revved up and made a faint purring sound, signalling that time had run out and that The Doctor and Donna had to depart.

"The walls of reality are closing, if Donna and I don't go now we'll be trapped here" he said.

"Is that altogether a bad thing?" asked Rose.

"Hey, you have everything you possibly want here, but I've got Gramps waiting back home" Donna replied.

"But you can fly the TARDIS right? You're a meta-thing, like this Doctor is now" Rose said, pointing to the Metacrisis variation.

"Donna's my responsibility Rose, I have to make sure she's safe" The Doctor replied.

Rose wasn't having any of it.

"Listen to me you big dummy, I came looking for you, all of reality was bleeding, and I braved it all to find _you_ " she said rather insistently.

"And you found me, you found me and you saved me, you helped to save all of us, I can never forget that, but you have a life here, this world needs Rose Tyler, and that man there needs a healer. I have to move on, live different lives, I can never settle down with you Rose, I told you that years ago, I had hoped that advice would have sunk in by now"

"It's not fair" Rose said, fighting back tears, not wanting to give the smug god before her any glimpse into her vulnerability.

"It will be alright" said Donna.

"It _won't_ be, because the Doctor's still him" Rose said, pointing to the original.

The Doctor pointed back to the Metacrisis version.

"And he's me" he said.

Rose gave both men a stern look of authority, the ball in her court.

"All right. Both of you answer me this. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it."

"I said, Rose Tyler" the original Doctor replied.

"Yeah and how was that sentence going to end?" Rose said.

"Does it need saying?" The Doctor replied.

Rose turned back to the Metacrisis Doctor.

"And you, Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"

This Doctor didn't hesitate; he seized his chance and whispered the words in Rose's ear.

Rose stared back at him, a fire ignited in her eyes, and she leapt forward at him, pulling him in for a long and fulfilling kiss.

Donna stared back at The Doctor, his face stony and unphased. He turned his back on the two as they locked lips and walked towards the TARDIS. He urged Donna to follow as he walked through the doors.

Donna stood firm and let out a coughing fit to interrupt the love session.

"Are you _quite_ finished?" she said.

Rose, realising what she'd done, ran towards the doors, Donna stopped her in her tracks, putting herself between Rose and the TARDIS.

"Let me go after him, I need to talk to him..."

"You said all you needed with that kiss" she said, not even masking venom in her disapproving voice.

"Look, he was being a bit stubborn, I didn't know how to react" Rose urged.

"You tore down barriers to whole worlds and dimensions _just_ to tear him down all over again" Donna continued.

"She made her choice" said Metacrisis, coming to Rose's defence. This only served to fuel Donna's quiet rage further.

"Your own choices have landed you in enough bother mister; I saw what you did to a whole legion of Daleks. Make no mistake, the Doctor stuck you with Rose because she's good at mending things, but hang around her too long you might end up having to mend yourself"

"I can't let him go, not like this" Rose pleaded, "I don't want my last memory of him to end like that"

"I may just be a temp, and all I did back there was pull a few levers and push people's buttons, but I did all of that because I'm loyal to my friends, I'm loyal to _him_ , and that loyalty is going to help me lead him out of this fresh fire and back towards the light in living"

Donna turned and headed back inside the TARDIS, Rose sank to her knees.

"I didn't mean to hurt him" she said.

Donna glared back at her.

"He was _already_ hurting, can't you see that? He was already trying to let you go gently, you could have told him you would take that Doctor's needs into consideration, come to accept him in your life and to take it slowly. He didn't ask to be put on the spot, for it to be a _competition_. The way he answered you was meant to spare you his anguish, and your response, without _thinking_ , was to _spite_ those feelings"

Donna stepped through the TARDIS doors.

"You're a _bad_ wolf Rose Tyler" she said, and closed the door shut behind her.

As the Metacrisis knelled down to cradle her, Rose saw the TARDIS dematerialise, the memory of the man she rejected lingering her mind for now and possibly for the remainder of all time.


End file.
